Kos discovers Lakoff

Kos has read "Elephant" and loves it. He has a nice write-up on his blog:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/20/24655/5647

I am surprised that it took him so long. The Dems have been abuzz with the "framing" stuff for a year now. The topic kept coming up on the Edwards campaign blog throughout the fall and winter. The longest thread (more than 30 pages) on JREgrassroots.org is devoted to the subject, not to mentioned that the issue of framing keeps coming up no matter what the topic is, from foreign policy to education.

I have several posts here on the topic, starting with my very first post, "Moral Politics in the context of the history of marriage" (the book review), through "Moral Order" (expansion on that aspect of the Lakoff scheme), "Edwards' legacy" (on JRE's language and framing skills), "Safire's reptilian brain" (on analysis of a conservative with a libertarian streak), and "How to win conservatives over: Don't Think Of An Elephant" (announcing the new book), "War Of The Worlds" (on the super-religious conservatives), "Bush is a girlie-man" (on the importance of masculinity in framing the president), "Red and blue cultural tastes" (on where to look for frames), "Liberal Moral Core (Rush Limbaugh version)" (more on the Lakoff's scheme), and "Reframing "activist judges"" (my attempt at framing), "Talking to a Conservative" (a how-to advice), "Conservative America" (ties in economics to ideology), "The Political Brain" (applying neurobiology to framing) and ""Framing" is spreading through the Blogosphere" (about some excellent posts on various blogs discussing this topic), etc. (I am sure there are a few more related posts I cannot remember right now), so scroll down and comment.

Everyone who's read "Moral Politics" or Lakoff's articles and interviews has been waiting for months now for Lakoff to publish the "Elephant" book. I think of "Moral Politics" in relation to "Elephant", like Torah in relation to Talmud, or Das Kapital in relation to The Communist Maniphesto. The former is meat, the latter the sizzle, the former the theoretical beckground, the latter a self-help manual.

If you have no time and energy, but you want to go out and convert independents tomorrow, read "Elephant". If you want to truly understand America, and use that knowledge in political activity for a long term, read "Moral Politics".